April 30, 2009

The last loaf for this week is the Whole Grain Pullman Loaf (page 134) from the Baking & Pastry Project. I received the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry book and all their learning DVDs for my birthday. This began my quest to bake my way through the Baking & Pastry book one recipe at a time and all gluten free. This dough is baked in a pullman loaf pan or a regular loaf pan with using a baking sheet for a top and something to weigh down the top like a foil wrapped brick or even a cast iron pan.

When I was getting prepared for the project, I worked up a list of the protein contents of all the flours. One of the flours that made me curious was cocoa. It has a fairly high protein content (19.70 g per 100 g flour) and quite a bit of fiber (33.7 g per 100 g). In addition, each cup has 11 percent calcium and 66 percent iron. This amount of protein is comparable to the bean flours. By comparison carob, a substitute for cocoa, only has 4.85 g protein per 100 g of flour. However, it has 39.8 g fiber (per 100 g) and each cup has 36 percent calcium and 17 percent iron. As a flour it worked out nicely in the dough, although it did I did need to add agave syrup to the dough to help take the bitter edge off the unsweetened cocoa and the Job's tears flour.

This dough turned out a lovely pullman loaf that sliced easily into sandwich slices. Each bite had a dense cocoa flavor that tasted heavely when served warm and slathered with butter. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed this loaf, although our kids wanted it to be sweeter more like a sweet bread.

Recipe

2.8 Tb/40 g brown rice flour (3.6 g)

2.8 Tb/40 g sweet rice flour (2.4 g)

2.8 Tb/40 g arrowroot starch (0.3 g)

3.1 Tb/45 g Job's tears flour (4.5 g)

6.6 Tb/95 g chia seed meal (19.95 g)

2.5 Tb/37 g Montina flour (2.59 g)

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2.8 Tb/40 g cocoa powder (7.6 g)

4.7 Tb/67 g teff flour, ivory (7.3 g)

1.4 Tb/20 g Job's tears flour (2 g)

1.6 Tb/24 g instant dry yeast

2.5/12 g cane sugar

1.8 tsp/9 g sea salt

1.5 cups/354 ml whole milk, warm

3.3 Tb/48 g vegetable shortening, softened

1.6 Tb/25 ml agave syrup

1. In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients and blend. Add the wet ingredients and stir into a cohesive dough.

2. On a sheet of parchment paper sprinkle some sweet rice flour and then set the ball of dough on it. Shape into an oblong loaf and then set into the loaf pan. Set aside and allow to rise for 1

hour and then cover with a sheet of parchment paper and a baking sheet. Weigh down the top baking sheet with either foil covered bricks or rocks, even a cast iron.

3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F/204 degrees C. Place the loaf pan with the top sheet onto a baking sheet and then set it in the oven. Set the weight on top of the baking sheet. Then bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from the oven and allow to completely cool before serving.

This week I'm starting off the Baking & Pastry project with the recipe for Pain de Mie (page 134) from the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry book. This dough can be used to make oblong loaves (pg 184 & 222) or into cylinder loaves using a pain de mie pan.

Until starting the Baking & Pastry project, I hadn't used metric quantities very often. Most of those recipes were for the monthly baking challenges for the international baking online group, The Daring Bakers. After baking some of these recipes, I realized how easy it was to use my kitchen scale and the metric beakers that are in my kitchen. It also helps, that my son's Geometry work is always done in both imperial and metric measurements, so I get in a fair bit of practice.

If you are interested in adding the ability to use metric quantities in your baking, one of the best investments I made for baking is a kitchen scale. You want one that has ounces, pounds, kilograms and grams, like the one from Escali.

Next you'll need to get a measuring cup or beaker that measures in milliliters, like the Emsa beaker which measures six different ways. A mini measuring cup that does smaller amounts is helpful, such as the one from Oxo, but isn't necessary is you have metric equivalents on your measuring spoons. Take a look at measuring spoons like the ones from Roscan, or another option is a progressive international measuring set that starts at 1/32 tsp and goes through 2 cups, made by Progressive.

If you aren't ready to add a scale or metric cups and spoons to your kitchen, one of the best baking or cooking resources is the Gourmet Sleuth website. They have a variety of measurement converters to help you change anything from drops all the way through gills.

This recipe is made with a bread flour that in the original version has 31.59 grams of protein per 100 grams of flour. The gluten free version has 31.51 grams of protein for 100 grams of flour. The protein contents of each flour used follow in the parenthesis.

This loaf turned out to be rich tasting loaf that was reminiscent of a whole grain bread. I served it with a breakfast meal of fruit salad and egg and ham cups. My family thoroughly enjoyed this loaf of bread.

1. In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients and blend. Add the wet ingredients and stir into a cohesive dough.

2. On a sheet of parchment paper sprinkle some sweet rice flour and then set the ball of dough on it. Shape into an oblong loaf and place in a warm location to rise for 1 1/2 hours.

3. Place the baking stone into the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F/190 degrees C. Brush the egg wash over the loaf and once the oven is preheated, slide the parchment paper with the loaf on it into the oven. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes and the crust is a golden brown.

April 27, 2009

What's going on? I was a very lucky woman and received a copy of the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry book along with their culinary dvd's from my family for my birthday and our anniversary. After watching all the DVDs, I decided to work my way through the CIA's Baking and Pastry book - of course making it gluten free. There were so many skills that I wanted to develop and work on. I hope you will be interested in sharing my journey with me.

Pain de Mie Pan - It's not necessary to make this recipe. If you decide you want one or you'd like to see what they look like, they are available at Fantes.

Pullman Loaf Pan - It isn't necessary to purchase a pullman loaf pan to make this recipe. You can mimic the effect of the pullman pan with a regular loaf pan, a sheet pan and several bricks. You can also purchase several sizes of Pullman Loaf pans from Fantes. You can buy the smaller size at Williams-Sonoma and in a larger size at Kerekes - bottom and top are sold separately.

April 26, 2009

I finished the week with the recipe for Grissini (page 133) for the Baking & Pastry Project using the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry book. This dough can be used to make thin breadsticks that are either hand rolled or cut with a fettuccini pasta attachment (pg. 203).

The breads from the Baking & Pastry book, are made with either bread flour or a high gluten flour. The challenge as a gluten free baker is that most of the flours that we use don't have a high protein content and the ones that do can have an adverse taste when used in sufficient quantities alone to make these recipes (i.e. bean flours). For a better taste and texture, we add a couple of different starches to the flour mix, which lowers the overall protein content. In my conversions of the Baking & Pastry bread recipes, I tend to use the bean flour or nut/seed meals to raise the protein content.

However, there is another option, you can use egg white powder (albumin), as Chef Coppedge does with his Lean White Bread recipe in Gluten-Free Baking with the Culinary Institute of America. It has 11.5 g protein for 1 Tb/14 g or 35 g per 100 g of powder to increase the protein content of your flour mixture. For example, if you use Bette Hagman's Four Flour Blend Mix, as it has 7.5 g of protein for 100 g of flour. One of my conversions typically has 20 Tb/284 g of flour, so using Bette's Mix the dough would have 21.3 g of protein. To match of the amount of protein contained in bread flour, you would need to add 4 Tb/56 g of egg white powder and use 16 Tb/228 g flour blend.

This recipe is made with a high gluten flour that in the original version has 39.4 grams of protein per 100 grams of flour. The gluten free version has 36.55 grams of protein for 100 grams of flour. The protein contents of each flour used follow in the parenthesis.

When you go to make your pine nut meal, add some of your flour blend to the grinder before processing. Pine nuts are quite oily and once you start grinding you get pine nut butter quickly without the flour. So process the nuts in smaller amounts along with some of your flour blend.

My family thoroughly enjoyed eating the grissini, especially the ones that were sprinkled with sea salt. We ate them with a spaghetti dinner and my daughter tried dragging them through peanut butter - to her great enjoyment. They take a little time to make, but they are a nice addition to an Italian meal.

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and stir together. In another bowl combine all the liquid ingredients and add to the dry mix. The dough should be a little stiff.

2. You can make the grissini as thin hand rolled sticks or as thinly sliced sticks about the thickness of fettuccini. For Hand Rolled Grissini: On a sheet of parchment paper sprinkled with sweet rice flour, divide the dough out into small balls about 1 in/2.5 cm. Then roll the dough out until it is about 1/4 inch in diameter. Gently set on another sheet of parchment paper sprinkled with sweet rice flour. For Thinly Sliced Grissini: Divide the dough in half and place one piece on a sweet rice sprinkled sheet of parchment paper. Flatten the dough with your hand and sprinkle with sweet rice flour before setting another sheet of parchment paper on top. Roll out the dough until it is about 3/16 in/5 mm thick. Gently ease the top sheet of parchment paper off the dough and sprinkle with sweet rice flour. Lay the top sheet back on the dough, then flip the dough over and repeat. Remove the top sheet of parchment paper and using a long sharp knife, cut the dough into strips that are 3/16 in/5 mm wide. Gently ease the strips apart, but leave them on this sheet of parchment paper for baking. Repeat all these steps for the second half of the dough. Note: If you own a pasta machine you can use it for the thinly sliced grissini using the fettuccini attachment for cutting.

3. Preheat the oven to 385 degrees F/196 degrees C. Allow the dough to rest for 15 minutes, before brushing olive oil over the grissini. Then sprinkle with your choice of toppings.

April 21, 2009

I started the week with the recipe for Soft Rolls (page 132) for the Baking & Pastry Project using the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry book. This dough can be used to make shapes such as Parker House and Knots (page 218 & 219).

These soft and tender rolls are made with bread flour. For a long time I experimented with various gluten free flours trying to pump up the protein content without using a bean flour. However, I'd have needed to use a larger amount of nut or seed meal, then the rolls would no longer have a soft and tender texture. I opted for using some tepary bean flour, which is very high in protein so I could use less of it in the mixture. Then I used almond meal for it's mild flavor and to pump up the protein content. I switched to sweet potato flour since it contains more protein than arrowroot starch. The resulting dough had a nice taste although it was a bit robust. To mellow the flavor I added agave syrup to the recipe.

The protein amounts of each flour follow in parenthesis. The total amount of protein for the original soft roll dough has 36.4 grams (per 100 g flour) as compared to 36.88 grams of gluten free flour (per 100 g flour).

My husband and I thought the rolls had a fabulous texture and flavor. After he got home late from work the other night, we enjoyed them with slices of Comte cheese and a glass of red wine...delicious. My son opted to eat his plain, but my daughter wasn't thrilled with the rolls. She just couldn't get past the aroma the rolls had when they came out of the oven - as they smelled a bit beany. We told her that once they cooled slightly they didn't smell or taste of beans, however she remained unconvinced. There was no way she was going to try these out.

1. In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients and stir making sure the ingredients are thoroughly blended. Pour in the agave syrup, butter, milk and egg mixing until combined.

2. On a sheet of parchment paper sprinkle some sweet rice flour and turn out the bread dough. Roll into a log shape and divide into 6 equal pieces. Then roll them gently between your palms to around them and place on the parchment paper. Set out another sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle with sweet rice flour for the rolls that are shaped.

3. For Parker House Rolls - Press each piece of dough into an oval about 4 in/10 cm long and 3/8"/1 cm thick. Then fold the dough in half with the top edge stopping about 1/4 in/7 mm from the edge. Lay on the second sheet of parchment paper.

4. For Single Knot Rolls - Roll each piece of dough until it is a long cylinder about 6 in/15 cm in length. Gently ease the dough into a single knot and fold the ends to the back so they touch. Then press the ends together. Lay on the second piece of parchment paper.

5. When all the rolls are shaped, cover the rolls and allow to rise until doubled, approximately 1 hour.

6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F/191 degrees C convection oven. If you have a baking stone, place it in the oven at the same time on a shelf in the top third of the oven. Brush the Parker House rolls with clarified butter and the knots with egg wash. Place the parchment paper with the rolls on it onto the baking stone. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

7. Remove the stone or brick from the oven and slide the parchment paper with the rolls onto the baking stone. Remove the bread from the oven, then let the bread cool before serving.

April 20, 2009

I was a very lucky woman and received a copy of the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry book along with their culinary dvd's from my family for my birthday and our anniversary. After watching all the DVDs, I decided to work my way through the CIA's Baking and Pastry book - of course making it gluten free. There were so many skills that I wanted to develop and work on. I hope you will be interested in sharing my journey with me.

This week I'm making Soft Rolls and Grissini. What are grissini you ask? They are thin breadsticks. You can roll them out with a pasta machine or you can fix them by hand. Over at Delicious Days, you can find some she made with squid ink making them a dense black color. Or over at the LA Times there are some made with whole wheat flour.

The beauty of baking gluten free is the infinite variety of options when it comes to selecting flours. Each one is unique in nutrition, flavor and texture. When I figure out which flours will work for the recipe, I make up little bowls the chosen mixture and start taste testing. For example, when I selected quinoa and black bean flour the flavor was strong and a little too much for the rosemary. I experimented with adding more rosemary or a touch of agave syrup and found that the sweetener was the perfect choice to mellow the mixture.

It is a high protein bread that calls for durum wheat flour that has 13 percent protein for 100 grams of flour, as compared to 12 percent protein for bread flour. This recipe contains both types of flour, the first series of gluten free flours are to replace the durum flour and the second set (after the line) are to replace the bread flour.

The protein amounts of each flour follow in parenthesis. The total amount of protein for the original durum rosemary bread was 33.02 grams (per 100 g flour) as compared to 33.41 grams of gluten free flour (per 100 g flour).

This bread has a great crust and holds together very well when you bite into it. The flavors blended together beautifully. It's great warm from the oven with a pat of butter, but it's also nice with a chunk of aged gouda. My daughter wouldn't give it a try, but her brother thought it was quite tasty. He decided to have it along with some left overs...pizza and chinese. This from the guy who believes there is really only one flavor of ice cream worth eating - vanilla. Go figure.

1. In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients and stir making sure the ingredients are thoroughly blended. Pour in the agave syrup and the water mixing until combined.

2. On a sheet of parchment paper sprinkle some sweet rice flour and turn out the bread dough. Roll into a log shape and divide into 6 equal pieces. Then roll them gently between your palms to around them and place on the parchment paper. When all the rolls are shaped, take a sharp knife and score the center of each roll with a straight line. Cover the rolls and allow to rise until doubled, approximately 1 hour.

3. Preheat the oven to 460 degrees Fahrenheit. If you have a baking stone, place it in the oven at the same time on a shelf in the top third of the oven. Gather an oven proof bowl that can hold water, a stone or brick, and a squirt bottle filled with water for steaming your bread. Allow the stone or brick to warm in the oven.

4. Remove the stone or brick from the oven and slide the parchment paper with the rolls onto the baking stone. Place the water bowl on a shelf in the bottom third of the oven. Then place the brick or stone into the pan of water. Squirt the sides of the oven with water and the top of the bread. Bake for 3 minutes then squirt the sides of the oven and top of bread with water. Then continue to bake for another 17 minutes. Prop open the door of the oven and allow the bread to cook for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven, then let the bread cool about 1 ½ hours before cutting.

April 18, 2009

It is amazing how dependent I am on my computer, back up drives, wireless network cards and routers. When parts die, I grind to a halt. Last night my husband got everything fixed.

Then we got side tracked by the videos from week 1 of this season's Britain's Got Talent. It's a fun show with so many talented folks competing.

This week's first recipe from the Baking & Pastry Project using the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry book is for Whole Wheat Bread (page 130) and the shaping exercise is the batard (page 197). It is a high protein bread that calls for high gluten flour that has 14 percent protein for 100 grams of flour, as compared to 12 percent protein for bread flour. This recipe contains both types of flour, the first series of gluten free flours are to replace the bread flour and the second set (after the line) are to replace the whole wheat flour. The protein amounts of each flour follow in parenthesis. The total amount of protein for the original whole wheat bread was 36.79 grams (per 100 g flour) as compared to 36.47 grams of gluten free flour (per 100 g flour). The agave syrup was added to take the slightly harsh after taste away from the dough.

The dough shaped up beautifully and had a fabulous crust after it was baked. The flavor is a little stronger, but it makes fabulous sandwiches and seasoned croutons.

Recipe

32 g brown rice flour (2.88 g)

30 g sweet rice flour (1.8 g)

30 g arrowroot starch (0.3 g)

78 g Anasazi bean flour (17.16 g)

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100 g buckwheat flour (14.3 g)

13 g arrowroot starch (0.03 g)

6 g chia seed meal

2 g agar agar powder

5 g instant dry yeast

5 g sea salt

210 ml - 260 ml water

2 ml agave syrup

1. In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients and stir making sure the ingredients are thoroughly blended. Pour in the agave syrup and the water mixing until combined.

2. On a sheet of parchment paper sprinkle some sweet rice flour and turn out the bread dough. Shape into a batard shape and using a sharp knife slice length wise down the center of the dough. Place onto a french bread loaf pan, cover the dough and allow to rise for 45 minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 460 degrees Fahrenheit. If you have a baking stone, place it in the oven at the same time on a shelf in the top third of the oven. Gather an oven proof bowl that can hold water, a stone or brick, and a squirt bottle filled with water for steaming your bread. Allow the stone or brick to warm in the oven.

4. Remove the stone or brick from the oven and slide the parchment paper with the batard onto the baking stone. Place the water bowl on a shelf in the bottom third of the oven. Then place the brick or stone into the pan of water. Squirt the sides of the oven with water and the top of the bread. Bake for 3 minutes then squirt the sides of the oven and top of bread with water. Then continue to bake for another 17 minutes. Prop open the door of the oven and allow the bread to cook for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven, then let the bread cool about 1 ½ hours before cutting.

April 14, 2009

I was a very lucky woman and received a copy of the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry book along with their culinary dvd's from my family for my birthday and our anniversary. After watching all the DVDs, I decided to work my way through the CIA's Baking and Pastry book - of course making it gluten free. There were so many skills that I wanted to develop and work on. I hope you will be interested in sharing my journey with me.

This week I'm making a Whole Grain Bread and what sounds like a mouth watering Rosemary Bread using a blend of high protein flours.

Due to the Easter holiday weekend, I'm a little off my original schedule (Sun/Tues/Thur). This week, my bread postings will be on Wednesday and Friday. Next week I'll be back to the original schedule.

April 13, 2009

Bagels call for high protein flour that has 14 percent protein, compared to 12 percent protein found in bread flour. To convert this recipe, I started horsing around with my Excel spreadsheet to get the flour mixture right. I wanted to try making the bagels using a different combination of flours than I had used with the Lean White Bread. Plus, I wanted to minimize any of the potential down sides to using bean flours (i.e. bitterness).

Taking a long review of my listing of protein contents, I noticed that mung beans have a protein content of 20 g per 100g of flour and the flour was a beautiful minty green. It was the color that made me think of pistachios and pumpkin seeds. That led me to thinking about salmonella outbreaks. No surprise that I ended up selecting pumpkin seeds to help offset any potential bitterness from the bean flour and to provide the extra protein the mixture needed. Besides, I figured that might not be too many people out there harboring year old pistachios in their freezer...mumble...mumble...unlike me.

Next to consider was the choice of binder, in other words what is going to hold this gluten free bagel together when I go to boil or cut it. The problem is that if you use too much of any one binder, you tend to get gummy bread that makes you think of a bad jelly candy. Many commercial foods that use binders (i.e. gums) tend to use more than one since they work better together. For example, the pint of Green & Black's Vanilla Ice Cream I have in my freezer uses two gums, locust bean gum and guar gum. I chose chia seed meal and agar agar powder since each works a little differently. The bagels just need a little extra binding, so I chose not to cook the agar agar and used the powder.

"Sorghum malt syrup," you say, "What in the heck is that?" Well, it's the syrup that's made from boiling down the juice from the unmalted grain (rather than from squeezed sorghum canes) until it reaches a lovely amber color. Sorghum malt syrup is made from white sorghum and contains the proteins and amino acids needed to feed the yeast. It's the perfect thing to perk up bread, but also for making gluten free beer...maybe I should try a little side project in home brewing.

Glorious green dough is what came from the mung bean flour and pumpkin seed meal. Minty green like new leaf shoots and perfect for a St. Patrick's Day celebration, although I'm a little late for this year. Better yet, they retained their lovely green color through boiling and baking. Yep, they survived the boiling and maintained their shape. An added bonus was the glaze added to the bagels by the sorghum syrup water and it keeps the toppings on the bagel.

Hands down my family loved the bagels. No bean flavors to mar their enjoyment and my son (a no topping, no filling kind of guy) worked his way through several of these quite happily. He's almost 13 and while he eats like there is no tomorrow, he's no push over. He's not about to inhale anything that doesn't taste good. Yeah, the inhaling food thing makes me wonder too. Can he really taste his food? Hmmm...maybe it's the nose and taste buds combo that does it. Anyway, you've got his word on it - these taste good.

RecipeYield: 6 bagels

Note: You will need to grind your own pumpkin seed, chia seed meal and mung bean flour. You can use a coffee grinder, just make sure to sift your pumpkin seed meal and mung bean flour prior to using so as to remove any larger bits. You can purchase sorghum malt syrup from Midwest Home Brewing Supplies in a smaller 3.3lb container. All the flours, pumpkin seeds, mung beans, chia seeds, agar agar powder, salt and instant dry yeast from Barry Farm.

1. In a large bowl, pour in all the dry ingredients and stir together. Add the sorghum malt syrup and water into the bowl and mix together. Lay out a sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle with sweet rice flour. Dump the dough in the middle of the sheet and then shape into a rectangle. Divide the rectangle into 6 equal strips. Then roll each strip out and join the ends. Roll the ends together to attach them. Lay out another sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with sweet rice flour and lay the finished bagels on the parchment paper. Once you are finished shaping the bagels, place the baking sheet into the refrigerator and retard over night.

2. Fill a stock pot with water and pour in the malt syrup. Place on a burner and set it to boil. If you have a baking stone, place it in the oven and then preheat it to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Set out a sheet of parchment paper in your work area and near it set a bowl of ice water and your bagel toppings.

3. Once the water is boiling, place the bagels in the water and allow them to cook for 1 minute, but don't allow them to touch. Lift each bagel out of the water, place into the ice water for about 3 seconds. Allow the water to drain off before placing on the parchment paper. Sprinkle with toppings and allow to air dry for a couple of minutes. Then slide the parchment paper with the bagels on it onto the baking stone. Cook for 10 to 13 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the bagels to cool before slicing and serving.

April 6, 2009

This is the first recipe of my Baking & Pastry Project – Lean White Bread. It is a wonderful recipe to start out with as it is fairly easy yet offers a mental challenge. Usually, I select gluten free flours based on flavor or texture for any given recipe. This was the first time I had ever chosen flours based on protein content and other factors considered later.

My challenge was to make this bread using higher protein content gluten free flours, but a blended flour combination that make gluten free baked goods taste better.However, that also lowers the overall protein content, so it required a some playing with the individual flour amounts.

The highest protein containing gluten free “grain” flour is quinoa, but it can taste a bit grassy.Other high protein options are nut, seed or bean flours.Of the bean flours, white bean is considered the mildest of the beans and is also high in protein.I purchased my white bean flour, but you can grind your own using a coffee grinder. With white bean flour as the main source of protein, the other flours were chosen based not only on protein content, but by mildness in flavor and color (white). I used chia seed meal not only as a binder, but also as an additional source of protein.

Bread flour contains 12 grams of protein for 100 grams of flour.There will be 36.4 g of protein in this loaf when made with bread flour and 36.4 grams of protein when made with the gluten free flours I chose.

I created an Excel spreadsheet with some handy little calculations built into the cells, so I could easily manipulate the flour amounts in order to get the same protein content as bread flour.By using the spreadsheet I could easily play with the amounts of the flour until I had the right amount for this bread.

With gluten free recipes that don’t contain any sweetener, I have found that I always need to do a taste test to make sure that there isn’t a bitter after taste.With the quantity of bean flour that I used, there was a slight after taste so I added the agave syrup to take care of it.

The final loaf had a lovely crust and a nice brown color. Although my family felt like it needed other foods served with it rather than eat it alone.My daughter liked eating it with strawberry jam and butter, I liked it served toasted with butter and fig preserves and my husband like his in a bacon and baby greens sandwich with a dollop of wasabi mayonnaise.

Recipe

The volume of this recipe is a quarter of the original found on page 123 of the Culinary Institute of America’s Baking & Pastry book. The boule shape was the first shape introduced using this dough and can be found on page 182.

Total Protein: 36.46 g

60 g brown rice flour (5.4 g protein)

30 g sweet rice flour (1.8 g protein)

30 g arrowroot starch (0.09 g protein)

52 g millet flour (5.98 g protein)

102 g white bean flour (21.93 g protein) *

6 g chia seed meal (1.26 g protein) **

3 g instant yeast

6 g sea salt

32 ml agave syrup

178 ml water

Lay out a sheet of parchment paper. Then in a large bowl, combine the first 8 ingredients. Pour in the agave syrup and water and stir together.Sprinkle the parchment paper with sweet rice flour and place the bread dough in the center of the paper.Shape into a round ball and score a semi circle on the top of the dough.Cover and allow to rise for 1 ½ hours.

Preheat the oven to 460 degrees Fahrenheit.If you have a baking stone, place it in the oven at the same time on a shelf in the top third of the oven.Gather an oven proof bowl that can hold water, a stone or brick, and a squirt bottle filled with water for steaming your bread. Allow the stone or brick to warm in the oven.

Remove the stone or brick from the oven and slide the parchment paper with the boule onto the baking stone.Place the water bowl on a shelf in the bottom third of the oven.Then place the brick or stone into the pan of water.Squirt the sides of the oven with water and the top of the bread.Bake for 3 minutes then squirt the sides of the oven and top of bread with water.Repeat this step twice more.Then continue to bake for another 11 minutes.Prop open the door of the oven and allow the bread to cook for 10 minutes.Remove the bread from the oven, then let the bread cool about 1 ½ hours before cutting.

Notes:

* White Bean Flour – You can purchase white bean flour from Barry Farm or you can grind your own using a coffee grinder.Make sure to sift your bean flour before using to make sure any bits that weren’t ground are removed

** Chia Seed Meal – You can purchase chia seeds from Barry Farm and use a coffee grinder to turn them into meal.

I couldn't avoid my date with the 1040 any longer and succumbed to it's over powering call on Saturday. By late Sunday, my husband and I finished our review then shared a gut squeezing hug for the blessed wonder of e-file. Since I have finally emerged from the brain freeze induced by finishing our 1040 and assorted state taxes. All I can say is, "Thank the Lord for Turbotax!"

In order to make a high protein flour mix for the Lean White Bread and the Bagels (recipe 1 & 2 of the Baking & Pastry Project), I need to experiment with using bean flour. Some bean flours offer a higher protein content than quinoa (16 g protein for 100 g flour). For example, white bean flour has around 21 g protein for 100 g of flour.

My flour order finally arrived and contained white and black bean flour, plus a bag of mung beans that I want to turn into flour. Using my handy dandy Braun coffee grinder, the one devoted to grinding seeds, nuts and spices, I started making a racket. Grinding beans isn't a quiet process and some place there is probably a warning about the need to wear hearing protection.

Then our Sheltie thought I was trying to tear down the house and decided it was time to tell the coffee grinder to stop as loud and as often as she could. This was no "Timmy's in the well!" type of commotion. It was a no holds barred cease and desist order for the bean grinding to stop.

By the time I finished, I had these lovely piles of colorful flours.

The mildest tasting flour is the white bean and the strongest was Jacob's Cattle bean. Starting from left to right the bean flours are lined up based upon strength of flavor.

This is picture two where the Colorado River bean flour follows the mung bean flour in flavor strength. In the top picture, the green beans are mung, the large red speckled bean are Jacob's Cattle bean and the smaller rosey speckled beans are Colorado River beans.